European flavour in Moroccan platter not spicy for global fare
MOSCOW: The goalkeeper is Spanish, born in a small Spanish enclave on the north coast of Africa before working his way up the various tiers of Spanish leagues up until Numancia in the second division. In front of him, one of the defenders is also Spanish, a teenager bred at Real Madrid. Two others in the backline are from France, including the captain who grew up in the suburbs of Paris.
The dominating flavour in the midfield is Dutch, four of the five midfielders originating from that country, including the veteran defensive mid from Feyenoord, the bright young playmaker who is set to leave Ajax this summer and the winger who plays in the Premier League. The lone striker is French, who worked his way up a bunch of obscure clubs, before netting a move to Turkey.
Morocco’s starting eleven against Portugal on Wednesday might as well have been a Rest of Europe team.
As the country’s national anthem rung out at the Luzhniki Stadium, Nabil Dirar would have been forgiven for feeling a little bit lonely — he was the only player on the pitch who was actually born in Morocco.
Players opting not to play for the country of their birth and instead of playing for the country where their parents or grandparents are from is nothing out of the ordinary.
Indeed, in this World Cup, it is estimated that one in ten players were born outside the country they play for. Only nine of the 32 teams field players who were all born within their boundaries. But even their staunchest supporters would admit that Morocco have stretched things a bit by fielding a team almost entirely born and bred elsewhere.
But does a team of French, Dutch and Spanish footballers really feel Moroccan to the fans? Yes, is what Hicham Kabbaj, an engineer who has travelled down for the World Cup feels. “It doesn’t matter where they were born,” he says.
“The fact that they have chosen to play for Morocco makes them Moroccan. We have millions of people of Moroccan origin living in various countries. They feel as proud of Morocco as someone living in the country.”
On the pitch, Wednesday was Morocco’s last consequential day in Russia as the Atlas Lions, despite dominating the Portuguese for most of the match, lost their second consecutive game and crashed out of the World Cup.
As they created chances en masse but struggled to finish them off in the final third, their French coach Herve Renard must have been wondering what would have been had the one player he missed out on been at his disposal.
In May, Morocco lost an appeal to FIFA for including Barcelona’s Munir El Haddadi in their team, because he had played 13 minutes for Spain in a European Championships qualifier in 2015.
The 22-year-old forward had scored ten goals in the La Liga last season, playing on loan for Alaves, who finished 14th. If he had been on hand to finish off a couple of the countless chances that they created against Iran and Portugal, Moroccan fans might as well have been celebrating on the streets of Moscow, the success of a team that is not really their own.
vishnu.prasad@newindianexpress.com